Using the latest advances from Intel and Nvidia, MALIBAL attempts to prove that portability and performance are no longer mutually exclusive. Can a fully-loaded Lotus P150HM meet the needs of performance enthusiasts and gamers at a more reasonable price?

As the mobile vendors who specialize in DTRs try to prove their battery-equipped workstations can replace performance-oriented desktops, many appear to have forgotten that most people like to carry their portable devices farther than the distance from their office to their car. Due to the extra cooling and energy needs of high-performance components, any effort to reduce weight has come at a huge cost in capability.

That is, until now.

The recent launch of Intel’s Core i7-2920XM CPU, which brings massive efficiency gains to the table, puts desktop-class performance into mid-sized notebooks, addressing exactly one half of a “high-end” notebook’s typical shortcomings. The other half of the middleweight performance problem is graphics, to which Nvidia thinks it has an answer in its GeForce GTX 485M.

The combination of these latest components looks good on a spec sheet, but we had to find out how well these worked in actual games and applications. MALIBAL was ready to help us find out, sending its mid-sized Lotus P150HM for evaluation.

The configuration we received adds over $2000 over the base model, including the $895 CPU upgrade from the standard Core i7-2630QM and a $495 upgrade from the GeForce GTX 460M. While many of these upgrade rates seem at least somewhat reasonable, substituting Intel’s 120 GB X25-M for the base model costs $5 more than purchasing the drive separately from Newegg. Though reinstalling the OS would have been a nuisance, there’s little chance any of us would pay someone $5 to take the standard 320 GB drive off our hands.

CrashmanI think you can save around $1500 and still keep the good graphics card if you're willing to give up the fast processor, SSD, and extra RAM

Good point. With that taken off price, it looks really appealing, honestly.Size+Wieght+Power+Price+Battery=great!...if I wanted a gaming laptop.For me, the HD6550M and i5 480M serve me well enough at 1366x768 until I can get back to my kickass desktop.

I have a pretty good gaming laptop Asus G73. I remember when i bought it i was thinking to myself that this can really change everything because of how fast and how portble it was. But even though i have a fast laptop i still prefer gaming on a desktop.

Too bad you made no comparisons to desktop midrange systems. So we still don't know if it's worth going for only a laptop like this, or getting a cheap i3 laptop for the road and a proper gaming system for stationary use.

envolvaWhat about Optimus or some way to switch between the GTX 485M and the i7 2920XM integrated graphics? Is it something out of reach for these parts?I wonder because you absolutely don’t need the GTX while doing mundane work, and the notebook could run for 4+ hours with that battery.

Intel demonstrated at CES a compact desktop system that could do that using Lucid software, but I believe we may have to wait for the Z68 before we see it in any retail products. Intel didn't provide the technical details of its demo and if I had urgently wanted to know them, I probably would have been forced to sign an NDA to see them.

Why no thermals? I know we got power, and efficiency, but if it can't cool itself well for extended use (say, away from home, and taking care of the gaming urge) it will be wasted money when parts breakdown from being too hot for too long.

envolvaWhat about Optimus or some way to switch between the GTX 485M and the i7 2920XM integrated graphics? Is it something out of reach for these parts?I wonder because you absolutely don’t need the GTX while doing mundane work, and the notebook could run for 4+ hours with that battery.

I was wondering the same thing and after reading the initial reviews of the white books that were handed out, I was hoping we would see this. The ability to have a gaming laptop that is able to achieve more than 2 hours of battery life would really turn the mobile world on it's head.

lostandwanderingI was wondering the same thing and after reading the initial reviews of the white books that were handed out, I was hoping we would see this. The ability to have a gaming laptop that is able to achieve more than 2 hours of battery life would really turn the mobile world on it's head.

Let's recap before we continue that discussion:

CrashmanIntel demonstrated at CES a compact desktop system that could do that using Lucid software, but I believe we may have to wait for the Z68 before we see it in any retail products. Intel didn't provide the technical details of its demo and if I had urgently wanted to know them, I probably would have been forced to sign an NDA to see them.

Intel's NDAs tend to be regressive, so if Intel had asked and I had capitulated I wouldn't have been able to tell you that much. I'd rather have the ability to report a few things than have "total knowledge" and no ability to speak of it.

What I'm saying is that the technology you seek should be possible, but we will likely have to wait for the public announcements.

Please get proper noise dB tests for everything. Many people buy only quiet computers/components. I'm freaking tired of the fact that PCs get more noisier year by year. It's getting harder and harder to find acceptable hardware.

lol, don't get me wrong. I read what you wrote and fully understand that. One can be hopeful though

edit: Like I said, I also read the reviews on the White books that Intel released for Sandy Bridge. Anandtech wrote the same thing you did, the "it's possible" thing. Just hoping to see it in implementation is all.

NeBuNok...we have high performance laptop...where are the high performance batteries to go with them? why can't they make a small power brick like the ones that apple makes?

Because you can't make a small power brick for a computer with that kind of power. Apple can make small power bricks because they use sub-par graphics components in their machines that are at most, 20% the power of the 485m.